• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.305-313
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• 2019

The study examines whether higher CEO compensation is related to unobserved future firm performance in an emerging market, Pakistan. Further, it extends its scope to analyzing the impact of group affiliation and ownership concentration on the relationship between CEO compensation and future firm performance. The study uses an unbalanced panel data consisting of 1508 firm-year observations from 225 non-financial listed companies in Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for period 2005 to 2012. The multiple regression models adjusted to heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation in error terms are used. The study finds that, in general, CEO compensation is positively associated with future operating performance. However, higher CEO compensation leads to lower operating performance in firms that have lower ownership concentration and are affiliated with business groups. When firms are not affiliated with any group and have high ownership concentration, the relationship between excessive CEO compensation and future operating performance becomes insignificant. Given that efficient compensation packages may lead to long term value creation to shareholders and reduce agency problems, this study highlights an important moderating role of ownership concentration and group affiliation of the firms in emerging markets.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.749-759
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• 2021

We investigate the relationship between ownership control disparity and future firm value in high-technology industries, and whether the effect of ownership control disparity on future firm value is differentiated when high-tech industry firms belong to chaebol groups. Using 11,848 firm-year observations of Korean firms listed on the stock market from 2006 to 2019, we employ univariate analysis and Heckman 2 stage analysis to test our hypotheses. We define high-technology industries as ICT industries based on the Korean Standard Industrial Classification. We measure future firm value using average Tobin's q for the next three years and ownership control disparity using the shareholding ratio of affiliated companies. Our univariate test results show that mean of Tobin's q is higher in ICT firms than non-ICT firms and firms largely owned by affiliates. In multivariate test, we find that the ICT firms with higher ownership control disparity are positively associated with future firm value. However, this association is lessened when firms belong to a chaebol group. Based on our findings, we suggest ownership control disparity has an additional positive effect on future firm in high-technology industries. The negative impact of chaebol groups on the association suggests the possibility of diversification discount in business group.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.35-49
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• 2017

The main objective of this paper is to empirically analyze the efficiency effects of mergers on Korean pharmaceutical firms and suggests managerial or policy implications for managers or policy makers. This study selects non-merging control firms close to the size of merging firms, as well as a set of merging firms, and measures the effects of mergers on efficiency three years before and after the merger using the non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. To compare the differences of efficiency means among several groups, Wilcoxon rank sum test or Wilcoxon signed rank test is used. It showed that the long-term effects after the merger appeared partially. Furthermore, it was observed that there was no difference statistically in the efficiency between merging and non-merging firms. Also, there was no difference statistically in the efficiency between the pre- and post-merger periods. In conclusion, there was not any observed synergy effect through group (or affiliated) mergers between affiliates or related mergers for Korean pharmaceutical firms.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.185-196
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of split ratings on earnings management through cost adjustments based on asymmetric cost behaviors. Using a sample of 2,027 Korean firm-year observations over the 2002-2019 period, we analyze whether a firm deliberately reduces discretionary costs, such as selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses, to improve profits when it receives multiple ratings from credit rating agencies (CRAs). While examining earnings management incentives in the presence of split ratings, we also investigate the moderating effects of Chaebols, Korea's unique corporate governance structure. We find that split-rating firms show less stickiness in SG&A costs compared to non-split-rating firms when sales decrease. This result implies the deliberate reduction of discretionary costs to improve earnings in the presence of split ratings, which are more likely to change in future credit assessments. We also find that the incentives for earnings management of split-rating firms are limited in Chaebol firms, which have high levels of socio-economic surveillance and support affiliated firms through the internal market of corporate groups. This study contributes to existing research by identifying new determinants of cost behavior by using the framework of asymmetric cost behavior in relation to earnings management incentives.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.2108-2114
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• 2011

I examine propping within chaebolgroups, using changes of bond rating events made by corporate credit evaluation institutions. Much studies related to the internal capital market and tunneling have enhanced our understanding of the important function of chaebolgroups in emerging market, but relatively little is known about propping within affiliated firms. In a common sense, propping implies capital reallocation within affiliated firms to save a financially troubled affiliate. In event study on announcement the changes of corporate bond rating, I found most positive numbers in chaebolgroup's CAR. Particularly when lower change than higher change, decrease ratio of CAR is higher positively in chaebolgroups, which relatively shows that there is more propping effects in chaebolgroups than non-chaebolgroups. In multi-regression analysis, after strengthen restriction of internal mutual investment, propping effects are decreased positively in chaebolgroups than non-chaebolgroups when credit rating adjust lower, which implies there was more propping in chaebolgroups.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.47-57
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• 2015

This study examines whether successful stand-alone firms have more difficulties than the successful firms affiliated to business groups in external financing. The easiness of external financing is measured by investment-cashflow multiple. Controlling the effects on the multiple of the past business performances and the expectation of future business performances, we investigate how the ownership type affects the multiple. The empirical results show that, when cashflows are positive, the stand-alone firms exhibit higher investment-cashflow mupltiples. When cashflows are negative, however, the opposite is true, even though the statistical significance of the result is rather low. These results do not support the general idea that stand-alone firms must have more disadvantage than subsidiary firms in raising funds from outside. If member firms of business groups have no big trouble financing externally, then the above results imply that stand-alone firms do not either identify external financing as a major difficulty in running business. Thus, if the government seeks to formulate the selective policies supporting only the promising start-ups, instead of the general policies benefiting random start-ups, then the start-up financing policy should have a lower priority.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.353-379
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• 2019

This paper aims to determine factors causing the stagnation of Korean firms' fixed investment after the global financial crisis, using panel data for the period of 1999-2016. Fixed investment remained sensitive to cash flow and Tobin's q although their effects decreased after the global financial crisis. A decreasing trend of cash flow and an increase in Tobin's q since the early 2000's imply that the worsening cash flow was a major factor behind the sluggish investment after the crisis. Meanwhile, debt-equity ratio remained significant for non-chaebol affiliated firms, reflecting disparity in access to external financing. Volatility of stock returns also became insignificant after the crisis, casting doubt on the argument that uncertainty was a major factor contributing to the decline of fixed investment. Analysis of financial investment confirmed the significant effect of cash flow, larger than that on financial investment than on fixed investment. In particular, debt repayment and other financial investment, except share repurchase, were sensitive to cash flow. However, the substitution of fixed investment by financial investment is a consequence, rather than a cause of declining fixed investment.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.189-223
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• 2018

This paper examined the effect of innovation networks comprising research and development (R&D) collaboration on innovation performance of Korean pharmaceutical firms. As co-assigned patents and co-affiliated publications are common technical outcomes of successful R&D collaboration in the pharmaceutical industry, social network analysis technique was applied for analyzing innovation networks through patent and publication data. Results of Social network analysis indicated that a small set of highly innovative firms in the Korean pharmaceutical industry were actively involved in patenting and publishing. And the analysis of structural equation model found the followings: (1) R&D intensity significantly affected patenting, publication and new drug development, (2) the activity of patenting and publishing was positively related with the innovation performance measured by new drug development, and (3) R&D collaboration in terms of degree centrality of co-patent network played significant moderating roles on the relationships among R&D intensity, patenting, and new drug development. These findings are expected to be helpful to researchers as well as policy-makers to devise innovation-promoting policies in the Korean pharmaceutical industry. Discussions and limitations of the study are provided in the last part.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.5-15
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• 2016

This study examines whether Korean rating agencies such as Korea Investors Service (KIS), National Information & Credit Evaluation (NICE), and Korea Ratings Corporation (KR), incorporate corporate governance into their corporate bond ratings in Korea. We find that the Korean rating agencies assign higher ratings to the bonds issued by Chaebol (Korean business group) affiliated firms. Our results also indicate that those rating agencies give higher ratings to the bonds with greater foreign investor share ownership. Moreover, if the rating agencies value corporate governance, higher rated firms should issue bonds at lower yield to maturity. We discover that Chaebol affiliation is counted favorably by the rating agencies. We find that investors are willing to pay lower risk premium for bonds with higher institutional ownership, but higher risk premium to bonds with greater equity ownership in the form of depository receipts. Therefore, even if the rating agencies and investors in Korea consider corporate governance (Chaebol affiliation and ownership structure) an important determinant in bond ratings and the yields to maturity, they have opposite views on institutional ownership and share ownership in the form of depository receipts.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.107-130
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• 2005

The purpose of this study were to examine the spatial distribution and locational characteristics of the Internet movie industry, to seize the value chains of the Internet movie industry and distribution structure of the internet movies, and to analyze the vertical-horizontal linkages of the Internet movie firms and their spatial clustering. Recently, the Internet movie industry has developed rapidly due to the development of techniques related to movie contents, the broadband Internet and a wide expansion of the high speed communication network and the increase of demands on movie contents. It has been found that 74$\%$ of the Internet movie industry was concentrated in Seoul. Especially this industry was quite agglomerated in several dongs of Gangnam-gu such as Yoeksam, Nonhyeon, Daechi and Samseung. The proximity of the same or similar business firms was the primary locational factors that influenced on the Internet movie industry, followed by other factors such as convenience of transportation, the reputation of the place, and proximity of technically supporting firms. The Internet movie industry had the valve chain composed of 'contents suppliers $\rightarrow$ contents distributors $\rightarrow$ service providers', However, there were also a complex network of the VOD copyright owner, VOD syndicator, and service providers in each category of the value chain. This research clearly revealed that the localized clustering has been formed with the movie contents providers, technically supporting firms, client firms, and cooperative-affiliated business firms related to the Internet movie industry, Additionally, a very intimate network has been established within the clustering, inducing the enlargement of the market and decrease of costs, the co-sharing of tacit knowledge, and the synergy effect.